2021 is over....kinda

I am through with 2021!   Done!  No more!

What in the world am I talking about?  I am talking about the 2021 challenge that I embarked upon this year!   Yes, at the beginning of the year I decided that I would be trying to tackle the task of completing 2021 miles in 2021!  Any type of miles counted.  Swimming....hiking...walking...running...biking!  The challenge amounted to 5.5 miles per day!  I was stoked and ready to rumble with my miles!

It didn't take long for me to hit that wall!  I hit the wall of impossibility within 2 weeks!  I was feeling completed daunted by the miles.  Seriously, I was feeling like I was going to fail by the thirteenth of January!  My gut instinct at that time was telling me to quit.  I was literally thinking "MaryFran, you are going to fail so you may as well stop now and not waste your time even trying."    But something clicked within me.  Something made me sit back and say.  "NO....keep going and do NOT look at the full mileage you need.  Instead focus on the 5.5 miles you need EACH DAY!"   Only focus on one day at a time.  5.5 miles is doable....easily doable on that exercise bike!

So that is what I did. Each day I focused on only what I needed to achieve that day!  5.5 miles, 5.5 miles, 5.5 miles.  Wash, rinse and repeat!  I missed very few weekdays but weekends were a bit sporadic, so I started to up my mileage on the week days to account for any miles that I may miss due to life or sickness.  I started to work up a bank of overage miles.  But I didn't let up.   After a month or two I began to focus on getting 7 miles a day...then 8 miles a day. ....then 10 miles a day.  I was racking up the miles and my end goal of 2021 miles was spinning toward me on that exercise bike! 

I am so very proud to announce that this past week I reached the 2021 mile mark!  I have propelled myself 2021 miles this year!  I did it in less than 9 months!  I totally rocked out this goal!

That means that I have FINALLY earned the right to wear the tee shirt that I got when I signed up for the challenge!  

So what is in the future?  I am concerned about the fact that without the 2021 challenge that I will just fade back into an existence of no exercise.  I don't want that.  I can tell how much the biking has helped me along.  Hiking is no longer painful and has actually turned fun! 

So I am announcing the desire to actually make it to 2500 miles in the year 2021!  (but I'm wearing my shirt now because I earned that puppy!)

Winning is not what you think!

Our society has a very warped sense of what winning really is.   We think we know...but it's totally wrong!!!!

I was talking to my friend Sherry yesterday about her daughter and her daughters issues with sports.  Her daughter starts gung ho and then peters out.  I was the same way growing up.  I wanted to try lots, but then I hit the brick wall (be it pain, boredom, etc etc etc) and quit.  I told my friend that she needs to focus on the victory being in that her daughter completes the season.  The victory is not in setting wonderful records or winning every game.  The victory is that she does it and COMPLETES it! 

 This conversation was fresh in my mind while my brother and I talked later in the afternoon.  We were talking about soccer.  He is coaching a young team (my 6 year old nephew is on that team). His beef with coaching the team is that the purpose of the age group that he is coaching is to get the kids out there and moving and to let them have fun.  He stresses out because some parents are hard core about winning.  These parents are running up and down the sidelines yelling at the kids and pushing the kids.  They are stealing the fun from the kids because the pressure to win has been elevated. Seriously, these kids are 6 years old!    My brothers words were 'we are creating a society of children, future adults that are hyped up on winning.'  We are teaching them that winning is the end all be all and nothing else matters.   Is this really what we want?

My brother and I talked about team sports and such.  I looked at him and said "I think that's why I'm liking running".   He looked at me and smiled and asked me to clarify (although I think he knew what I was going to say.)   I replied with. " Lets look at the Boston Marathon simply because that's all we hear about lately....they had what?  30,000 runners?"  He and my sister in law nodded in agreement to my rough (really rough) estimate.  I went on.  "I would wager a bet that there were only a handful of people that ran that that actually even thought that they had a snowballs chance in hell of winning that thing."   Less than 100 people probably were really only contenders to win.  (And I'm being very liberal, I bet it was even less than that).  Yet tens of thousands of other people ran it.  Why? Why would they run it if they knew they were not going to win?"   I of course paused dramatically at that point before I made my profound point.   "They did it because for them the victory was in finishing the race.  The victory was in possibly setting a personal record for running  marathon.  The victory was in the flush of success!"    THAT is what sportsmanship and winning is about. 

My brother quickly nodded his head. He looked at me and said "Most individual sports are like that.  Why do you think I ride a bicycle?  I win every time I climb a bigger hill in at a faster pace.  I win each and every timee I successfully finish."  My brother looked toward my niece who was sitting quietly listening to the conversation.  "Ali gets it.  While there are winners in gymnastics and she is striving to win and we do celebrate when she places, she is competing against herself.  She celebrates her 'best ever' scores.  She is competing against herself first and foremost!" 

That is what winning is about.  It's about competing with yourself.  Some days winning is simply getting out there and running or riding or whatever.  Some days it's about setting a personal best record.  Admittedly, some days it IS about taking first place in an event....but not always. Winning is SIMPLY doing it!

That all said.  I have been very quiet about posting goals and numbers and such.  I know round about where I want to be weight wise, but I'm not stressing about it. Yes, I would like to be there as soon as possible and I would LOVE to set goals to be a a certain weight by a certain time.  But I'm refusing to set goals like that...they only set us up to fail.  But I'm going to set a goal today.   Right now I'm running a 5k distance in bout 43 minutes (that was Saturdays run).  My goal for Mary 18th, which is the paws on the pavement 5k that I am registered for is the run that in under 40.  I don't care if it is one second shy of forty minutes, I want to be UNDER 40!   So I have to shave 3 minutes off my time in 3 weeks.  Can I do it????   Yikes!   That's my goal!